


A tarnished heart

by DoomNightAt12



Series: T&B Notfic collection [2]
Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Depression, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Gen, Kotetsu loses his powers, criminal OCs - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23470348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoomNightAt12/pseuds/DoomNightAt12
Summary: (Notfic)Originally titled: AU where things go real bad and none of my OCs help the matter.Kotetsu falls into depression when his powers decline and he loses his Hero job. Then he meets a totally-not-suspicious drug dealer who has something that brings back his power, and he ends up helping out his crew of NEXT with some totally legit work. But the newest hero Barnaby sticks his nose into the situation, and things begin to get out of hand.
Series: T&B Notfic collection [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1688401





	A tarnished heart

**Author's Note:**

> Feat. some OCs!  
> Visual references of:  
> Seth and Mirk - http://fav.me/dcuk0rg  
> Mel - http://fav.me/dbw8wtk

Spiralling fast into depression, Tiger finds his powers are running out, his company shut down due to his destruction, his daughter won't even come to the phone, and to top it off, while drinking in the dark, he sees the news on the new hero Barnaby, the "younger model, same powers and all."

He spends his time drinking, avoiding others and moping around the house, until his stomach growls, and he finds the fridge bare. He forces himself to go out, but on his way where ever, he comes across a suspicious man, who tries to sell him drugs.

“Hey man, looking for a pick-me-up?” The coat shifts with his shrug. Tiger stared blankly into the useless sunglasses on the shorter mans face.

"Normally I'd tell kids not to take drugs, but selling them is just as bad."

“Hey, I’m just trying to brighten up people’s lives. Not everything can be as shiny as the Gold Stage.” The stranger shrugged again, “But I feel I don’t need to explain that to you.”

“Heh, I’m that obvious am I?” He rubbed at his neck. Then again who else but a starving, hungover, depressed man would try to make small talk to a drug dealer?

“Unless those dark circles are painted on, afraid so.” With the returned laugh, the sunglasses slipped further down the dealers nose, revealing the strange, split irises in each eye. He quickly shifted the glasses back, but Tiger had clearly seen, curiosity darting across his face.

“Ah, sorry if that was a bit creepy. NEXT powers can do so weird and useless stuff…” 

“So you’re a NEXT…”

The man stopped, surprised by the non-reaction.

“…You one too? It’s not uncommon down here.”

Tiger’s face dropped further, something like shame and loss in his expression. “Guess I used to be. I’m not so sure anymore.”

They were both quiet for a moment, before the dealer pulled something from his coat. “Hey, times are tough. We do what we can to find a place to fit in, and helping NEXT is close to my heart.” He took Tigers hand and wrapped his fist around the tiny plastic bag. “First samples on the house. Hope it brightens your day.”

He disappeared down into the alley with a wave, and Tiger went home, having forgotten why he was out in the first place.

Alone, sitting in the dark, surrounded by mess and empty bottles, he’s not even that hungry anymore. The little bag dangling in front of his eyes held a single pill, pale in colour, with an N pressed into it. For every moment he looked away from it, the depressing thoughts slowly crept back into his mind, cemented by his surrounds. There was no where for him to be, no one expecting to see him, there was no use for Kotetsu Kubaragi in the world.

So what exactly was he hesitating about? What was there to lose?

“…fuck it.”

It goes onto his tongue, washed down with some warm beer, and he waits.

His sense of time was lost, but his sense of smell was picking up on the trash and stale alcohol, as well as the city air and cigarettes drifting in from the open window. The noise coming in was growing too, and it was driving off the haze in his head, giving further clarity to his senses. Bringing his tingling hands up, the blue glow was growing brighter and brighter. He hadn’t activated his power consciously, but he could sure feel it filling him with energy, more than it had given him in the last 12 months. He glanced at his watch, mentally noting where the arms sat, before standing and beginning to pace around the apartment. His pace gets faster and faster as he finds himself wanting to run, to move, to expend the energy he’d been given.

The closest option sent him out the window, and up to the roof, where the wind pushed him to sprint and leap and _soar._ He was in the moment, no focus on where he was going or who might see him, just that the 100 Power was screaming at him to GO.

Now somewhere far across the Bronze Stage, he managed to steal another look at his watch, 5 minutes was seconds away. But he couldn’t care less! He’d already surpassed his falling time limit, and he even managed to run a few minutes more before his glow faded. He gasped in as much air as he could, before his body promptly gave in, and collapsed.

The next thing Kotetsu could remember after sprinting the rooftops, was how awfully sore his everything was. His activity was not appreciated by any muscles, and certainly not his head.

“Oh, good morn’ sleeping ugly.”

It took more effort than he liked to open an eye to the looming shadow, his fuzzy vision only showing a silhouette which quickly moved away.

“Let him rest.”

A new figure came closer, and his cleared vision found sunglasses and a half hearted smile.

“Funny, that we meet again.”

Despite internal protests, he pushed himself up onto his elbows. He was laid out on a couch in what appeared to be a converted storage shed, boxes and bags lining the wall ahead, and a small kitchenette towards the corner. Standing over him was the drug dealer, round faced with short blond hair only dropping around his ears. Even without his coat, he was still wearing a full suit, which didn’t help him look any taller.

“Is this a coincident, or did that thing have a homing device in it?” His voice cracked slightly, and he became aware of how dry his mouth was.

“We had to drag your ass all the way here, I WISH it had a go home function.”

Twisting to look over the couch he found who had leaned over originally, being a teen with short, messy black hair a bored look in her blue eyes. They were dressed a lot more casually in a tee, shorts and boots, but the knife they played with offset any normalcy.

“Let’s call it a coincident, though I definitely wasn’t expecting to find you on the other side of Bronze from where I met you.”

“Let’s say I went for a run…” He laid back down, content enough that the two in the room weren’t going to kill him.

* * *

Kotetsu is picked up by the gang™ (Who is Seth (Drug dealer), Mel (Black haired teen), Mirk (Tall dark skinned man), Osrin(Shrimpy teen nerd)) and he makes friends with them because they talk about helping next n shit.

And they get him a job moving stuff for delivery because they don't have a hoist and it takes forever to move one by one. And it's chill until our Hero Barnaby is offered a side job of secret solo investigation of drug ring, bonus point for arrest. He heads the the warehouse with secret camera in tow.

Tiger (casual clothes with mask) is resting in the back of the truck, before Mel comes along and dumps a bag on his chest, sitting with him to eat food. (establishing relation, Tiger isn't too sure about having teens working, but if it keeps them outa trouble...) And then Tiger gets to moving a lot of unmarked boxes. Barnaby moves in sneaky sneaky, and Mel and Tiger kinda notice something wrong and try to leg it but he stops the truck by grabbing it. They plead innocent but Bunny keeps pushing for a fight, and Tiger calls him out for being a point hungry newb with no job passion.

And then Bunny kicks in the wheels of the truck, so Mel’s like ‘Oh fuck this’ and decides to fight. She whips out her knives and NEXT power, and Tiger isn’t to excited to join with his powers on the way out. They scuffle, but its damn obvious Mel has no chance and can only barely dodge. She eventually get back closer to Tiger and asks why the hell he isn’t helping, and says she’ll help him stand up to the other guy. She whips out a needle and quickly jams it into his neck, and he recoils in pain. His next glow changes to orange, and his entire body begins to shake. It turns out it’s a concentration of the same booster drug, extending and boosting NEXT abilities. Tiger quickly looses control and begins to fight Barnaby, who was confused by the sudden change. Mel retreats to the top of the truck to watch, and eventually gets a call from Seth who wonders what the hell they got up too. She tells him the trucks broke and a hero found them, so they need some help to get out. She's told to call in Osrin, and when he gets there he portals the truck out, and Mel drags Tiger through as well.

Back at the base once the drug wears off, Tiger asks what the fuck all that was. Why the hell did a hero attack? Seth try's to calm him saying that yeah they've been attacked by low rank heroes before but that was still them just looking to frame their gang as bad. No idea why a big shot showed.

He's dubious but still accepts. He does ask for some transparency though, like what the hell was Mel's actual NEXT power since it didn't seem to do anything. Seth laughs and he and Mel admit they don't know what her power does, and he's stumped. Yes apparently all she does is glow blue, and uses that to scare people into thinking she's got some hidden power. Tiger is then shocked she tried to fight a pro hero with just knife's and a blue glow.

Mel teases him about how impressed she was at him going toe to toe with the hero and what awesome power he had, and he secretly likes the praise. Something in Tiger longs for the thrill of being back at the top of his game, and he finds himself wanting more, but saying no when Mel offers more of the booster drug.

Here we probably check in on Barnaby, who is curious about this not so important NEXT gang and their weird power up drug.

Later on they find its back to little league heroes after them, and Tiger says he’ll get them off their tail. Mel questions how since he just moved all the stock, but stops and grins, bringing out the only means. He gives in and gets powered up to stop them.

As time goes on, Tiger gets very dependent on the drugs.

We hit a peak when on the high of not so good action, Tiger starts to shake as he can't activate his powers. The dread from ages ago seeps back in, and leads to him and Mel being captured.

Writhing in his cell, he suffers from withdrawal. The most he manages to move is to dangle his head off the bed when he throws up, and then shift away when the smell hits him. Barnaby visits the gaol and is given a file on the civilian identity of the man, learning his name and bits of his history (but not that he was a hero.) Seeing the mess of his cell though security footage, he asks for someone to clean it up, and says he’ll stand guard. He uses the time to try to talk to the man, asking who and what the gang was up too. The most he gets out it he just wanted to be useful again.

Back in the hero tower Barnaby pours over the file again. Rock Bison sees the file and admits to knowing Kotetsu, being old friends from high school, and Barnaby wonders if maybe an old friend could help get more information out. They both go back to see him. They again ask who and why, and he says while he really doesn’t know much of the crew, he was doing it to feel useful again. While trying to talk to him, Osrin breaks in by seeing the cells in cctv, helps Mel escape, and outside she hits Bison and Barnaby with her power and they collapse. Tiger is confused as asks what happened, and Mel explains her NEXT powers cause people to experience fear, and she can overload someones senses with adrenaline and/or shock if he can touch them. She then gets into Tiger’s cell and the three of them portal out.

With Mel’s power in the open they use it to hype Tiger up on fear and adrenaline and they try once more to pick a fight with the heroes. But since Mel can’t be there funneling her power via touch right next to him, there's still enough shreds of his heart stopping him from really going nuts, and he basically collapses after not punching the younger heroes Blue Rose and Dragon Kid. They retreat once more and realise this guy might as well be a lost cause. The really just want to start something.

Around now Osrin is just like “I never signed up for wanton rampaging against first league heroes!” and just fucks off while the others are lost in their scheming.

So now it’s plan C, and Seth steps up to the plate. His NEXT power lets him swap bodies and really go nuts without fear of harm to himself or others. He swaps with Tiger and they tie Seth’s body to a chair and Mel and company guard it. Tiger is actually kinda relieved not to be in a fully drug fueled body for once, And with Seth is out going nuts, Osrin drops some info and Barnaby, Bison and Dragon Kid all go out on a rescue mission.

They use Dragon Kid’s electricity at a distance to take out Mel, when Tiger shouts that there are more in hiding. A few others come out, but Mirk with a gun can’t stand against Bison, and the rest are all dealt with. Tiger tells them about the body swap power and the fact he’s pretty sure he can use it to get back to his own body. They head out, and of course the heroes have been actually fighting the hyped up 100 power, but Tiger reassures most surface level injuries can be healed with his power. (Um some fight goes here maybe) Seth is trapped by flames, and Tiger pounces through, gripping his head to swap back in. And baby man Seth is pissed! But Tiger just grabs the back of his trench coat collar and yanks it over his face and kicks him. And the fire starts to die off but Tiger just collapses because his body is done with this shit.

Urh, and now we sort of at the epilogue. Everyone is arrested, and Tiger is in hospital and probably won’t be charged with much more than property damage because of all of Barnaby’s evidence. Speaking of, he goes to visit Tiger once his condition improves (aka not in an induced coma while they figure out what shitty drug they were giving him so he doesn’t just die on the spot.) And they chitty chat and Tiger jokes he though sleeping with a security guard watching him would be awkward but its actually reassuring, oh and being chained to the bed. And lol what, you still don’t know I’m and Ex-hero? Nathan and Antonio and Keith will probably want to visit now. Oh and maybe my family but that’s a sore subject.

And later, having a moment of Barnaby meting Kadea in the waiting room and he asks if he can sit with her and shes like ‘oh snap its that hot hero guy’ and while chatting he hears that shes in to see her Dad but she doesn’t want to because he’s been distant and ignored her since Mum passed. And Barnaby has some philosophical family BS and says to give him another chance. And then the doc says they can go in, and says to Barnaby he might have to wait a while since that was Kotetsu’s family, and Barnaby is like ‘Oh nice I'll come back another day’

So now I can have a cute AF moment. Barnaby visits and they allow the retrains to be removed because Barnaby can handle him. And they’re chatting casually, until one point Tiger mentions his daughter visited, and said something interesting. That she would give him another chance because ‘’the Hero Barnaby said she should.” And like fuck man he cries because Barnaby has honestly saved his life so many times now.


End file.
